Store-fixture.



E. B. GOLLETTE, E. P. LARRY & N. BURAS.

. STORE FIXTURE. APPLICATION FILED APR. 1'. 19M. 1,139,257. Patented May 11, 1915.

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EUGENE BUB/BEN COLLETTE AND EDWARD PIERCE LARRY, OF NEW ORLEANS, AND NORBERT BUEAS, OF VENICE, LOUISIANA.

STORE-FIXTURE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

PatenteolMay 11, 1915.

Application filed April 1, 1914. Serial No. 828,814.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, EUGENE BURREN CoLLE'r'rn, EDWARD Pmnon LARRY, and NOR- BERT BURAS, citizens of the United States, the two first-named gentlemen residing at New Orleans, in the parish of Orleans, and the third gentleman in Venice, in the parish of Plaquemines, respectively, all in the State of Louisiana, have invented new and useful Improvements in Store-Fixtures, of which the following is a specification.

Our present invention pertains to store fixtures, and it contemplates the provision of an apparatus that is designed to facilltate the quick, easy and sanitary handling, weighing and selling of goods such as grain, beans, teas, cofl'ees, etc., and this with but a small amount of effort on the part of the person using our device.

Other advantageous features of our 1nven tion will be fully understood from the following description and claim, when the same are readin connection with the drawings accompanying and forming part of this specification, in which:

Figure 1 is a front elevation of our novel device as applied to a counter, and showing the position one of the spouts will assume with relation to the scales arranged on the counter when the operator wishes to make a sale of a certain merchandise. Fig. 2 is a side elevation of Fig. 1, and showing the device we employ to replenish the stock of goods to the hoppers of the apparatus.

Similar numerals of reference designate corresponding parts in the views of the drawings.

It is a well known fact that proprietors of stores selling dry groceries, as well as their customers, are subjected to certain inconveniences,-the former by loss of goods, sales, etc., and the latter by loss of time, short weight and the receiving of unsanitary merchandise, and it is to overcome these difliculties that we have devised the apparatus illustrated, which apparatus comprises the upright posts 1, fixedly connected in suitable manner at their lower ends to the counter 2. The said posts are formed of wood or other suitable material, and extend upwardly from the counter, and at a point 3 near their tops they are connected in suitable manner with a beam 4:, which extends the full width of the device, and at 5 the said posts 1 are connected with a beam 6, which beam also extends the full width of our device, and serves in connection with the beam 1 to retain the hoppers 30.

At 8 the posts 1 are permanently connected with a top or roof 9 of our device, and the saidposts tend to hold the roof in proper relation with respect to the counter 2.

As will be readily noted by'reference to the drawings, we provide between the roof 9 and the beam 6, braces 10, which braces are riveted at their upper ends to the roof 9, and at their lower ends to the beam 6, and serve to materially reinforce our device.

In order to allow a clerk to ascertain the contents of the hoppers, we provide glass or transparent panels 7. lhe side walls of the bottoms of the hoppers 3O converge downwardly, as indicated by 11, in Fig. 1, and the front and back walls at the bottom of said hoppers are also converged down-- wardly, as indicated by 12, in Fig. 2, and from this it follows that the said walls will cause the grain or stock contained in the hoppers to flow into the spouts 13 through the elbows 1 1, when the said spouts are released from the hooks 31, and held in a downwardly inclined position.

The spouts or tubes 13 are formed of tin or other suitable material, and are connected at 15 with the elbows 14, through the medium of universal joint preferably the well known ball and socket joints; which ball and socket joints will allow the said spouts to be thrown at any angle, and at 16 we have provided the spouts with ball valves which regulate the flow of stock to be weighed upon the scale 17 arranged on the counter 2. For the purpose of illustration, we have shown the ball valves as provided with handles or wheels 86.

In the practice of our device, the operation is as follows: When a customer calls for a certain amount of a particular goods, it is simply necessary for the operator to stand at a point adjacent the scales 17 and set the scales for a predetermined amount of goods, then release the spout 13 from its respective hook 31, being careful to see through the medium of the glass panel 7 that the spout 13 leads from and is in communication with the hopper containing the desired goods. When this has been done, and the mouth 32 is held at a point above the scale 17, it is simply necessary to open the ball valve 16 through the medium of the handle 36 and hold it open until the scale shows that the proper amount has been weighed out, when the handle 86 can be turned to seat the ball valve in its closed position.

It will be readily appreciated from the foregoing that my device is neat in appearance and when the spouts 13 are not in use,

they can be held out of the way of the.

clerks working in the store by means of the hooks 31, which are secured in the bottom Walls of the hoppers, which hooks may be of any construction consonant with their purpose.

For the purpose of replenishing the stock in the hoppers, we provide a track 18 at either the forward or rear part of our device, the said track being fixedly connected to the roof 9. Running on the track 18 is a wheel 20 which is connected through the medium of the arm 410 to the spout 22 of a conveyer 19. The said conveyer may be of any construction, but for the purpose of illustration we have shown a conveyer comprising a hopper 23 and an endless belt arranged inside of the conveyer and having gears at the upper and lower ends of the conveyer; thesaid lower gear being provided with crank 24 for causing the endless belt to travel in an upward direction. At the bottom of the conveyer, we have shown a wheel 21 as connected thereto through the medium of the arm 41, and by means of the said wheel, the conveyer may be run over the ground.

For the sake of showing the operation of the conveyer, we will assume that a hopper of our apparatus containing oats has been depleted of its stock. In such case it will only be necessary to run the conveyer along the floor through the medium of the wheel 21 at its bottom portion, and along the apparatus through the medium of the wheel 20 at its upper portion, until the spout 22 stops at a point above the hopper to be replenished. Now when oats have been placed in the hopper 23 of the conveyer, it is only necessary for the operator to turn the crank 24:, which will cause the oats to move upwardly with the endless belt until it arrives at the mouth of the spout communicating with the conveyer, when the oats will fall through the spout into the hopper desired.

It will be observed by reference to Fig. 2 that the discharge elbows 1 1 of the hoppers are arranged in different vertical planes, and that, therefore, when the spouts 13 are secured in their idle horizontal positions, there is no liability of any one of the said spouts interfering with the manipulation of any other spout.

- We would have it understood that our device may be attached either permanently to a counter, as illustrated, or to the floor of a building in the discretion of the person or persons practising our invention, and we would also have it understood that such changes or modifications in the relative arrangement of parts may be made in the future practice of our invention as fairly fall within the scope of the same as claimed.

Having described our invention, whatwe claim and desire to secure by LettersPatent, is:

Apparatus for the purpose described, comprising a counter, a frame arranged above the counter, a series of hoppers arranged transversely side by side above the counter and in the frame and having discharge elbows and also having side and end walls inclined downwardly and inwardly to said elbows; the said elbows being arranged in side by side planes and having upper vertical'portions and lower longitudinally-disposed portions, movable valved spouts, universal joints connecting said spouts with the longitudinally-disposed portions of the elbows, and hooks on the hoppers constructed and arranged to support the spouts in their idle horizontal positions.

In testimony whereof we have hereunto set our hands in presence of two subscribing witnesses.

EUGENE BURREN OOLLETTE. EDWARD PIERCE LARRY.

his NORBERT BURAS.

mark Witnesses:

E. C. KETTY, JOHN L. FELIEU.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, D. C. 

